Spider-Man: Homecoming was a great movie and all but its opening scene has really thrown a spanner into the workings of the MCU. You see, according to a caption, the events of the film take place eight years after The Avengers. Assuming the Battle of New York took place the year it was released, 2012, that would mean Homecoming has to be set in 2020.
On it’s own, that’s a little strange, but not too problematic. It becomes so, though, when you remember that Captain America: Civil War specified that the events of 2008’s Iron Man were also eight years ago, pretty much confirming that CW takes place in 2016. As Homecoming is supposed to follow that film by just a few months, clearly the time card doesn’t work at all.
Joe Russo has previously commented that he believes Homecoming to be “incorrect” in its MCU dating and during a Q&A at a special screening for Avengers: Infinity War earlier this week, a fan asked him to clarify the discrepancy once again. According to /Film’s Peter Sciretta, the director commented that we should basically ignore Homecoming‘s info and only follow dates stated in their own movies.
When asked about the Spider-Man Homcoming “8 years later” the Russo’s said they didn’t make Spider-Man Homecoming and their film is right.
— /Film (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
With so many different filmmakers working on various MCU projects, gaffs like this are bound to happen, even with Kevin Feige presiding over everything. To try and make sense of it all, only taking points of continuity from the Russo’s movies as fact – as they always helm the tentpole releases of the franchise – is probably a good tactic.
It was theorized that the Homecoming team made the time jump that they did to account for that common fan theory that claims Peter Parker turned up in Iron Man 2 – with the extra few years added on, that young boy could be the sixteen-year old Spidey – but again, as the Russos say, we should probably just ignore it.
Tell us, did this Spider-Man: Homecoming slip up bother you, or did you not even give it a second thought? Sound off in the comments section and make yourself heard.